Ficorpio
Chapter 1
My husband had a slim waist, long legs, and fair, beautiful features.
His only flaw was that he was completely uninterested in sex.
Our married life depended entirely on my one-sided efforts.
Tonight, I had planned to add a little excitement to the routine when I saw the floating comments—
【I’m dying. The villainess is scrambling around like a clown.】
【The male lead is a total believer in platonic love. His heart belongs only to his soulmate.】
【Once the heroine appears, those two pure-love champions will ride off into the sunset together.】
【In the original story, she clung to him and refused to divorce him. He threw her out with nothing, and she died alone in a tiny rental apartment. No one even claimed her body.】
I was still staring when my husband pushed open the bedroom door.
The moment he saw what I was wearing, the tips of his ears flushed red. He looked away.
“Could we… try something different tonight?”
“Forget it. Let’s just wash up and go to bed.”
I pulled the throw blanket around myself and turned my back to him.
Ethan Sterling’s hand froze halfway through undoing his shirt buttons.
He assumed I was angry that he had come home late. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he lightly touched my shoulder.
“Did I come back too late? I’ll come home earlier next time.”
I said nothing.
He leaned a little closer, his ears now red enough to drip blood.
“Or… you could sit on my face. That works too.”
I admit, I paused.
For one dangerous second, my mind went somewhere it shouldn’t.
Then I glanced up, and another string of comments drifted across the ceiling.
【They’ve reduced such a refined, noble man to this.】
【What choice does an in-married son-in-law have when he’s living under his wife’s roof?】
【If she hadn’t used her family’s power to force him into marrying into her household, would he ever have humbled himself enough to come here?】
【He was winning awards in Paris while she was busy buying handbags.】
【The first thing he’ll do after taking his company public is divorce her. She won’t get a single penny.】
【And she still won’t leave him alone after the divorce. The whole internet will laugh at her for going crazy. In the end, she’ll die in that tiny apartment, and it’ll be days before anyone finds her.】
“I’m really not in the mood. Go to sleep early.”
Ethan stared at me for a long while.
After all, in the past, I would already have pounced on him like a starving tiger.
But now my heart was as still as a pond. I couldn’t even be bothered to spare him a glance.
Only after a long silence did he murmur, “Oh.”
Then he got up and went to take a shower.
I pulled out my Smartphone and messaged a doctor friend.
【I can see words floating in the air, and they’re insulting me.】
My friend replied instantly.
Chapter 2
【Mushroom poisoning can’t be ruled out. Get medical attention immediately.】
【But we had mushroom hot pot last week.】
There was a pause.
【I’m in the clinic on Monday. Make an appointment with psychiatry.】
I set my phone aside.
The words on the ceiling were still there.
Piece by piece, I had pieced together a complete story from the Floating Live Comments.
I was the Villainess Supporting Role in some sanitized online romance novel.
My husband was a devoted believer in platonic love. He and the heroine—the true champion of pure romance—were the Official Story Pairing.
As for me, my ending was supposed to be tragic.
…This was a romance novel written for women, and they couldn’t even give the heroine a virgin male lead?
What kind of world was this?
I sighed.
A crimson comment suddenly pinned itself in front of my eyes—
【When the male lead was a child, he caught his father sleeping with his maternal aunt in his mother’s Memorial Hall. It traumatized him so badly that he developed a Fear of Sexual Intimacy.】
【The villainess forced herself on him every day, and he didn’t dare say a word. Instead, he secretly went to see a psychologist alone.】
【How else would he have met the heroine? She was his psychotherapist!】
I stared blankly at the words, my mind turning hazy.
…Did sex cause him pain?
Before Ethan Sterling married into my family, he’d already warned me that he had… issues in that department.
We tried once that very night.
I spent ages on top of him, coaxing and encouraging him every way I could think of. In the end, he closed his eyes and said hoarsely, “I’m sorry. I… can’t get it up.”
I stared at him for half a minute.
What a waste.
With a face like that, how could he just sit around looking pretty?
But he really was beautiful.
His skin was so pale it seemed to glow. His eyes were rimmed with red, his lashes damp, and his whole expression was obedient and wronged.
I studied him for a while longer, then let it go.
A beautiful vase that never made it into my house—that would have been the real waste.
The next day, I asked someone to find an old-school doctor and had him prepare more than a dozen prescriptions meant to improve Ethan’s health.
Ethan drank every one obediently. But when it mattered, nothing changed.
Eventually, I gave up.
If the hardware didn’t work, there was always the software.
His hands were skillful enough, and he knew exactly what to do with his mouth. He never refused anything I asked.
He just wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about any of it.
At first, I assumed it was a physical problem.
Later, I realized something was wrong.
He could make sure I was satisfied every single time, yet his own attitude remained detached and lukewarm.
Afterward, he would stay in the bathroom for ages.
Whenever I asked, he only said he was washing up.
I never thought too deeply about it.
Chapter 3
No one was perfect. With a face like his, was I really going to expect him to be all passion and fire, too?
It wasn’t until tonight, when I saw the Floating Live Comments, that I finally learned the truth.
All these years, Ethan had been forcing himself to please me while feeling disgusted.
The bathroom door suddenly cracked open.
Ethan Sterling’s voice drifted through the steam.
“…I forgot to bring my pajamas. Could you hand them to me?”
I froze for a moment.
There was a bath towel in the bathroom.
Since when had he become so particular?
I rolled out of bed and grabbed a silk dressing gown.
The gap in the door widened.
He wasn’t wearing a bath towel. He stood there completely naked in the mist.
His wet hair clung to his forehead, and the heat had left a faint flush across his skin.
His waist was so slender that water droplets traced the curve of it as they slid downward.
My eyelid twitched.
My gaze dipped two inches before I forcibly dragged it back up.
“Your pajamas.” I shoved the dressing gown through the gap.
He took it, but didn’t close the door.
Steam poured into the bedroom. Half his body stood in the light as he said softly, “…Thank you, wife.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. The corners of his eyes were flushed, and he looked at me as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t.
There was something different about that look from before.
My heart skipped half a beat.
A line of Floating Live Comments drifted across the air above me.
【The male lead is so nervous, terrified the villainess will force herself on him.】
【Then why did he ask her to bring his dressing gown?】
【Wouldn’t coming out naked make it even more likely she’d devour him? A bath towel could slip off with one touch. At least the dressing gown has a tie.】
Me: “…”
Ethan waited several seconds.
All he got was:
“Dry your hair before you come out.”
He seemed genuinely stunned. He lowered his head and glanced at himself.
Then he waited a little longer, apparently expecting more.
When nothing came, he lowered his lashes and gently closed the door.
【The look on the male lead’s face! I’m dying!】
【He escaped by a hair. jpg】
I slipped back beneath the covers.
Ten minutes later, he came out.
Still carrying the damp scent of the bathroom, he carefully lifted the duvet and eased into bed beside me.
A faint fragrance of rose-scented body wash drifted from Ethan.
It was the same scent clinging to me.
I turned my back to him and pretended to be asleep.
A barely audible voice came from behind me.
【The male lead is already laughing. He turned away so he could celebrate in secret.】
【Oh my God, his silent happiness is killing me.】
I didn’t turn around.
I only heard him roll over to face me.
A long while passed before he finally whispered,
“…Wife?”
I didn’t answer.
The edge of the duvet shifted slightly.